Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-11-23
CAPTURING THE CHIEF.

| - - AAA-NNs
Black Rube was supposed 10 be a
Mexican, whose real name was not gener-
ally known, but by his confederates was
| called Capt. Rube. and being n tall,
| gauut and Very dark visaged fellow, the
| people where he was only known as a
| desperate and robb,r, gave him the So
briqUet Of Black Rube, "A name that
| really became IA bugbear. He was a
| shrewd, daring fellow and ever seemed To
know just where the finest horses were.
| and how they were secured: also when
| private families or country stores had
any money about them; and when such
was the case, the proprietors might bc
sure that Black Rube would give them a
call, unless, forsooth, watch was set to
receive him, and if there WAS. he was
sure to find it out and forbear TO put in
an appearance, at least until after such
precaution ceased.
How he kept posted about such matters
was something IF a conundrum 10 every
body not actually engaged in the business
with him; still most people thought they
knew just how he got his information: il
called upon TO do So, could lay their hands
on the very man and no mistake. But,
notwithstanding many schemes had been
devised to detect the various suspected
culprits, no one had ever been found
guilty.
Every effort TO capture Rube had
hitherto proven abortive; he either uutrau
his pursuerS, or threw them off his track
and thus escaped them. Twice he had
turned upon his pursuers, surprised and
dispersed them. These feats of artful dar-
Ing excited no little ambition and deter
mination among the people, especially in
the breasts Of young biooGs, many Of whom
longed TO be the boosted captor of this
shrewd bold robber
He was usually attended. il seems. by a
greater or less number of followers, ac
cording as the prospective harvest was
great or small At the time of which we
write there had been quite number of
horses stolen, besides one or Two stores
robbed OF q considerable sum of money
As usual, on the disclosure of such events,
great excitement and confusion prevailed;
and before this cooled down to a rational
basis, and a party fifty equipped and sent
in pursuit, the bold Rube, with his i'll
gotten gains, was many miles away, run
ming, Us he ever did, for the pathless
mountain region, where il was next 10
impossible to capture him, because Of the
difficulty Of tracking him fast enough to
overtake him.
As this sagacious robber chief had been
20 unsuccessfully pursued heretofore, the
leading men Of the country, forming them
selves into what they termed a committee
of safety, made a selection of eight OF th,
most resolute and trustworthy young men,
offering them a considerable reward in
money to keep up the pursuit till they cap
tured or killed Black Rube, and gold
watch to him who actually did the deed.
The party so selected was to be intrllsted
to the leadership of one Capt. Brudce,
man who had Won great credit as IA scout
in the Union army during the war. II il
hardly necessary TO add that every one so
selected readily accepted the offer and i'm
msdiately reported ready for service. As
| had served much under Capt. Brudee.
and was well known to him, | WAS also
prevailed on to join this enterprise.
Every Step was taken to insure success:
the party WAS well mounted, armed and
otherwise equipped for a long and efTectual
pursuit; in fact, our watchword was,
BLACK Rube must come But, as the
Yankee said when he tackled the skunk.
that though he was much the biggest, the
advantage was with the skunk by Il tlooced
long odds;" so in this case, victory, or
rather the prize, was won by those. and i'll
way least expected.
To facilitate the tracking CT the thieves
and travelling through pathless country,
an Indian and a Chinaman. both consid-
cred Trustworthy and expert woodsmen.
were attached TO our party. The Indian,
however, WAS only half breed and little
known other than he was a great stroller
and hunter. As their names We're unfa-
miliar TO us, and outlandish anyway. and
as the first named was rather dark, the
other very yellow, we humorously styled
them our black and tan pointers. and so
called the one Black and the other
Tan"
These men were dressed in Indian cos
tune and armed with old and rather
dilapidated guns and hunting knives, so
that if seen by the robbers would not
likely be mistrusted but taken for what
they seemed TO be, Indian hunters, thus
serving in some sort as spies or decoys.
At length ali fairly in readiness for
start, We set out on the pursuit, and, for
greater secrecy, in the Wee small hours of
the night We soon reached the mountain
region where the robbers had entereds
Here the guards dismoun,ed and struck
ont 10 hunt the trail: this they soon found,
but after following it for a few miles they
found the robbers had dispersed widely
over the country, which rendered tracking
them almost impossible. Then they re
turned and reported their discovery. Capt.
-Brudee told them then TO seek the passes
through which the robbers must pass.
where they would likely again find
the trail. This was done; and
this method was followed up, but
vance Was also still further imnedad bv
the ia.lnusv and contention Of the CrIides
Tbay differed and disnutad "a much nc IN
IN. siru,rinp of the cnnntry IN. masses
S;s,,nces nroper ways to them and in.
d,s.d ahont almost eyerytbinfr and the
marry denendinp so nucL unnn tb.m- .s-
racia,Iy in tr,ilipg ,b,t i, he,,.n ,o fnrc.
irseIf nnon our minds Thai Eiack Rnl.,s
c.,,,,,rn ,vas very likely 10 be sin further
,,I,non.J